Minimum number of replies

Minimum number of reviews

Minimum number of views

Hey guys,
About 15 minutes ago, I watched my RFA start to kinda pull in its' tentacles before spewing some white stuff into the tank. It's been doing so since - is this an anemone spawning, or is it just dying? At this point, the whole tank is kinda milky.
This tank was rebooted not long ago, so most of the livestock has been recovering - although, this particular RFA has seemed fine to me. I did a 10% WC yesterday. The RFA's tentacles are still pretty sticky. I'm also feeding the clowns some metroplex-soaked food, bound with focus, but just in small amounts with the pumps turned off to avoid any getting into the nems.
Oh, and I'm running no skimmer. So, if this IS spawning, how do I go about removing all the crap from my tank? I know it's good coral food, but like... won't that cause issues in a 10 gallon?

I've had this RFA for almost 2 weeks now and it has never seemed happy. The other one I have opened up big and stuck to the rock immediately and eats anything happily. This one is much bigger and never really lays out flat and I don't think he's eating (he definitely won't take mysis stuck to his tentacles, they just sit there until they eventually come loose and blow away, but I've sprayed reef roids at his mouth, maybe he ate that?). The little one gobbles anything/everything by closing up and shoving it's tentacles into its mouth. The big one doesn't do anything except look unsettled.
I have seen the big one expell some poop but that was a few days ago.
My suspicion is that it doesn't like the higher flow and light at the top of the rock and it's trying to crawl away but is stuck in the depression of the rock?
14g led biocube.
Nitrates .2ish nitrites 0 ammonia 0
Only fish is a longfin clown who hasn't been bothering him that I've seen, he is still young and timid (hasn't turned into a jerk, yet).
I do have a peppermint shrimp, but I've never seen him on top of the rocks before/anywhere near the RFA.
Any advice?

Ok guys this is going to be a fun one...
after much thought and debate on that tank and theme I wanted to use for this challenge I went with what I had.I did not want to build out 3 tanks at once and a move coming up sometime in the next 2-4 months I wanted to keep it somewhat simple.
the theme is:
color & flower power and inverts... as the tank will focus on rock flower nems, mini max nems, zoas and any thing that is flower like and colorful.
I had so many themes I wanted to use here i needed 3-5 tanks, eh that not gonna happen.
Tank info
fiji cube 18.5 peninsula such an amazing little tank
return pump I just upgraded to the eheim 1000 a bit more flow but the same noise level as the stock RT pump.
intake flow none at this time but that could change
skimmer none I will do Wc and media
lighting 1X AI prime HD and 3D reefing defuser- perfect light I will be running a low level BRS AB+ profile
LR real reef rock making some DIY branch I might add after the move if it turn out well.
ATO auto aqua micro I really like this ATO more the the big tunze and ATK I used it on my big tanks and never got around to the ATK still new in the box.
Sand carib sea special grade. love this stuff. almost went BB but I love the look of sand so much.
heater a small finnex heater with digital read out. might be something I replace here soon.
temp control not 100% decided on this one but I am leaning towards getting a PM1 and eb4 or 8 and extending my apex for the long haul. or a ranco
upgrades down the road:
~ gonna have @This guy is extra salty build me a media basket. gonna look and work better then the egg creat I was thinking about.
~Vca RGF I have the .5" RFG but need to get the real loc line so it will fit. hoping to keep Power heads out of the DT for this one.
~after/during the move I might build a Tsot stand for the little guy if I feel the stand I have it not working or does not go with the new house.
~ in the processes of making some DIY branch rock something I am excited about and wanted to try for years, however it will take 2-3 weeks to make and 3-6 weeks to fully cure .
~ DIY upflow ATS, not sure I will need it or not but I plan to make ( and Have all the goodies ) a ATS for AIO nano stay tuned.
So some of you my remember this tank from a build I started a few months ago. tank only had sand, LR, and the nems. NO fish or CUC was just setting here, whent through a bad algae out break and was starting a red slime cycle. so I really wanted to be part of the FUN and getting a new tank in time for the dead line was looking slim at best that and the added extra cost of a new set up with all the goodies only to have in run in the basement mech room at the new place. and moving it seemed like a bad idea I thought the why spend all the time and money to only see it 2x a day in the basement fish room.
SO I cleaned this tank up, let it dry out for a few hours, gave the rocks a good scrub clean the heck out of the sand and re-scaped. took most of the day but today is a slow day for me anyway.
condiment pic :
nice clean sand:
new scape top down:
front on:
the Kitty is happy I am done messing with the nano it's here nap time after all in her fav. nap spot.

I lucked out to get a 10g IM with the Skyye light used for $50. It had been used for 6mnths for a freshwater tank. It was in excellent condition.
We made a pedestal stand for it out of 2x4's and special grade plywood used to make tractor trailers. This stand is solid and very heavy!
Equipment
10g Im
Stock pump
Spin Stream Nozzle
Skyye Light 10k 50/50
Caribsea black hawaiian live sand
80% dry rock/20% liverock
I cycled the tank with just the liverock, no dosing of anything. The tank took 6 weeks to cycle.
I had a favia brain in the tank because it had been in my 15g but was attacked by peppermint shrimp so I had to remove it. It was in bad shape.
After the first waterchange we added a few hermits and snails.
After a month we added a leather which was a carnation leather. Upon finding out the difficulty in success with this coral I brought it back to the store. I didn't want to take the chance and lose a coral in such a new tank.
My first fish was a purple firefish. it was added about 2 months after start up. It was absolutely beautiful and such a great fish.

8/2/19
7/16/19
6/12/19
5/8/19
Hello NR! I’m excited to be joining the old school pico reef contest.
My plan for the tank is a ‘boneless’ setup… so all (or mostly) soft corals and nems. On top of this, the tank will be set up at my high school, Whitney Young, as a part of my club, Eco Club, which focuses on animal stewardship and environmental education. I will be the one managing all maintenance on the tank. My main goal for this project is to teach other students about coral reefs/marine habitats and for them to be able to become active in their protection and conservation. Since I’ll keep it at school I won’t be there to take care of it every day, so I’ll try to make it as bulletproof as possible (why it'll be boneless).
Let’s get down to the setup list:
The tank I’m using is a UNS 3N, very seamless, clean look.
Aquaclear 50 power filter. I’ll get into the filtration below.
Kessil A160, supplied by the club.
Kessil Spectral Controller, supplied by the club.
Aqueon 50W heater.
ACKE horticulture/refugium light.
JBJ ATO, cheap and ugly... I'd like a Smart ATO micro in the future because the JBJ is reeaally bulky.
Now we’re getting into filtration:
The filtration is going to be mostly biological. I converted the AC50 into a refugium by putting the light on the back and taping the sides to keep the light in. I’ll be putting chaeto in there along with 3 marine pure spheres- I considered caulerpa but the possibility of it going sexual and nuking the tank outweighs the pros. The other biological filtration will be from the sandbed and live rock.
I have a small bag in with a tbsp of carbon and a few pinches of GFO as well.
I have a strip of filter floss next to the intake in the filter for mechanical filtration.
Jumping into the aquascape plan:
I wanted to give this its own category since I planned so much about it. Just to give you an idea of how long I spent on it, it took me over 10 minutes to wash the epoxy and super glue off my hands after I finished it.
I designed an arch to be able to let a few corals grow up the sides of it while leaving enough room on the sandbed for other corals. I’ll try to find some tall corals like leathers, kenya tree, xenia, or photosynthetic goniopora to put on the back of the arch to give it more depth.
I’ll get cloves, GSP, zoas, mushrooms, and some other softies to grow over everything and make colorful. It's mostly zoas though.
Then on the sandbed I’ll keep RFAs to put some more colors in there.
Moving onto the stocking list:
So the only real things that I will stock in the tank will be a clean up crew and a few crabs.
Right now I have a purple porcelain crab, a halloween hermit, two trochus snails, and a few hitchhiker stomatellas.
That about does it, I’ll try to pump out as many updates as I can for you all.

Ok so after lots and lots of thinking... We decided we are changing tanks from our JBJ NanoCube 28. I got tired of the bright white lights off the NanoCube and wanted more of a blue color light, like the Kessil gives off. So I setup the Nuvo 20, that was at the school, in our living room. So I will be "breaking down" the NanoCube and it will be given a rebirth in my classroom in the fall for our club. I plan on keeping all the rock that is in here live and cleaning up the tank for the new school year and putting it on a smaller stand so the kids can reach it. Here is my Journal for the new tank.
Equipment:
Tank - IM Nuvo Fusion 20
Pump - MJ-1200 (Pulled the Stock)
Light - Kessil a160we (Bought from here, DIY Mounted with Spectral Controller)
Heater - Finnex HMA 100W Heater
ATO - Want to use the AutoAqua Smart ATO (Not the Micro) but it did not seem to work with the black glass on the back (Anyone else have problems with this?), so right now I have a Tunze ATO (can’t remember exact model.)
Filtration:
Rock - 20Lbs Dry Rock (I think BRS - Sold at Local LFS, was gonna be for a Lagoon 25 that never happened)
Substrate - Ocean’s Direct Caribbean Live Sand
IM Media Basket(want to upgrade to inTank) with their Mechanical Sponges, had good experience with them in the classroom, may switch over if I get InTank baskets
Filter Sock - Nothing in it at the moment, just there to catch debris
Goals for this tank:
Over the last year and 4 months I have maintained a 28 gallon NanoCube with pretty good success, there were a few things that I wish I would have known when getting into the hobby. For one how much I hated putting my arms way down into a deep-ish tank when doing maintenance. Two how much it costs for Chemi-pure elite every 3 weeks. I also hope to keep a much more engaging Journal that folks can follow along with us.
So I kept both of these things in mind when setting up this setup, I made sure that maintenance of the tank will be very easy, ie. ample room to work in the tank and around the rocks to stir up the sandbed and keep that clean. Secondly the goal for this tank will be to run very little in terms of chemical filtration. I wish when i set up my first tank that I understood more about “refugiums” and MacroAlgae, so I specifically am planning on incorporating some form of refugium in the back chambers and a couple display macros that will help with sucking up excess nutrients. Ideally with a child on the way, this tank will take minimal maintenance time - 30-60 minutes a week not counting running an algae magnet over the glass every day or so.
Another thing with this tank that I am excited about is controlling exactly what goes into it, the 28gallon I bought from an LFS fully setup (I am sure now that I overpaid lol.) So with this one I am going Dry Rock with a couple rubble pieces from my Pico to help seed the tank. I originally bought the dry rocks that I did with a scape in mind for a Nuvo 25 Lagoon tank that we thought we were getting, that didn’t happen. When I bought the rocks I immediately began “curing” them in a 10 gallon tank with saltwater and an AC70 with just a sponge in it. I did this because I had read that dry rocks tend to “leech” phosphates and from what I can tell it’s because they were not cleaned very well based on anecdotal evidence. They have sat in there since April with water circulating and being topped off every few days, about once every week or two I would take a turkey baster and blast the rocks to get as much dust out of them as I could. Towards the middle of May I put a couple pieces of rubble Rock from my pico in there and then week before Memorial Day I put a bottle of Bio-Spira in the tank… This is where I may have made my first mistake, after dropping in the bottle on a Wednesday, my wife decided we were gonna take a last minute vacation for Memorial Day before the baby comes, so i was not able to test levels during this time. When I came back my Ammonia was reading “Zero”, Nitrite was “Zero” and Nitrate was between 60-80. I did a 50% Water Change and dropped in some more Bio-Spira then left for almost a week to help my best friend move from Chicago to Burlington, VT. When I came back the tank was measuring 60 Nitrate and No Ammonia or Nitrite, so based on all that I have gathered about the cycle of a reef tank, my cycle was finished. This past Friday June 8th I finally got the stand together and bought the upgraded pump. On Saturday I got the sand and water and proceeded to fill the tank up. Again still no Ammonia or Nitrites showing, Nitrates were measuring in at 10-15. After all of this I just decided to set the timer up on the Kessil and find a schedule and put some macro algae in there. After a couple of days of the Macro doing fine I added a small frag of Frogspawn to test the waters. Everything seems to be happy!
Planned Livestock:
Planning on Moving over our fish from the 28
2X Clownfish (Standard Occelaris and Darwin)
1X Pajama Cardinal
New Additions:
Possibly a Tailspot Blenny or Goby/Shrimp Combination
Planned Inverts:
Cleaner Skunk Shrimp (Already have in my 28Gallon)
Rock Flower Anemones - Planning to have a “Garden” of them off the Left Side of the Aquascape
Snails - Will have an Assortment of Trochus, Nassarius, Turbo, Fighting Conch and Astreas (Don’t think I will do Hermits this time around)
Possibly a small urchin down the line
Softy Corals:
Assorted Zoas - Goal is to cover the “arch” with them as they grow out.
Ricordeas - Planning to move over my Blue, Orange and Green Florida Ricordeas and maybe add a few more to create a “Ric Garden” on the Bottom Right of the rockwork (there is sorta a cavish area there)
LPS Corals:
Hammers - I have two currently in the 28 that I plan on Moving over, will be placing these up on the rocks above the “Ric Garden” along with….
Frogspawn - I have currently in the Nuvo as a “water-testing” coral (they should be fine next to the hammers, based on information that I have read)
Probable additions: I will most likely try my hand with Acans again, I like the looks of them but I think the lights in the JBJ NanoCube were just too much for them. Hopefully this time I can keep them, planning to keep them on the substrate most likely under the “arch”
Candy Canes - Thinking I will move over the Candy Cane Coral that I have in the 28, but only if I can figure out how to successfully kill the vermitid snails that are coming out it is in many different places lol - Not sure where I will place them yet probably above the RFAs once they settle in.
SPS:
Really I’m not the biggest fan of them, plus I know our Family Lifestyle does not bode well for the demands of most SPS, but I have a Birdsnest that has done phenomenal for us in the 28gallon and I plan I keeping that as well.
FTS 8-21-18:
FTS 7-13-18:
Picture of the Rockscape with ideas of where I plan to place corals:
Picture of the Rockscape without the colored circles 🙂
Here's a quick pic of the two tanks next to each other.
I have put a lot of thoughts into my fish so far in the tank and I would ideally like to add one more so I will put a couple of options down below and maybe you all can give me some opinions on adding those. I have also put a lot of thought into the corals that I like and would want, I am thinking I may also add some Dendros down the line or if you think there is anything else I should look at adding please let me know.
Let me know what you think and if I am missing any key information here for being successful? Or just your thoughts on my plans!
Thanks!

Hi, this is my journal of a 3-gallon pico reef I set up in December in of 2017. My goal for this tank was to have an easy to maintain, small tank specifically to focus on rock flower anemones and Sexy Shrimp. If anyone has questions on how this tank is set up equipment wise and livestock feel free to ask below, as well as post about any suggestions you have or pictures of your own Sexy Shrimp or Rock Flower Anemones.Â
Â
Stay tuned as I plan to add more RFA's to the tank soon

Looked at my RFA about half an hour ago and it was all scrunched up and looked like there was some red slime nearby. My previous thread about my RFAs was concerning my peppermint shrimp eating and killing one. They were removed and the only other livestock in the tank are hermit crabs and snails. My hermits will walk over them in their efforts to move around the tank but that's it. Any ideas as to what's going on?? Really don't want to lose another one 😞

As the title says, one of my new RFA is injured. A little backstory...
Day1: I just got six RFA from Reefapalooza this past weekend. By the time the plane landed and I was done acclimating, it was the wee hours of the morning. I just dropped everything into the tank, holding the RFAs against the rock for a few seconds so they would stick. Didn't even think to take my historically voracious peppermint shrimp out, mistake number one. Saw the male/larger of my shrimp go after one of the nems but it was already situated in the rock so it just closed and reopened.
Day 2: It's now Tuesday morning and my pink nem is not on the rock and has fallen/moved underneath it. Into the shrimp's lair. I pick it up and move it back to the top of the rock and it seems fine. Fast forward to the evening and I need to go to work. Nem is back under the rock but looks fine so I rush out to, mistake number two.
Day 2 (night?): came home from work at three in the morning and I don't see the nem at all. Looking under the rock, I see the male shrimp happily picking away at something. That something happens to be the foot of MY NEM. Yank the nem out and put it in its shipping cup and stick the cup in the first chamber of the tank's sump (AIO tank). To late to do anything so obsessively check the nem about five times before going to bed
Day 3/current: Woke up, tore up my tank apart, and yanked out both of the stupid shrimp. Stuck the little brats in a bucket with an air stone. Nem is still in the back of the tank. Doing a little prodding, it looks like the shrimp ate directly through the mouth and through the foot. Saw on another forum to do the good ol' sniff test to see if the nem is dying. Smells fine, still has it's color, has light from my fuge light, but is all curled up on itself. Is there anything i can or should do??? I know RFA can be pretty hardy but this is one of my favs and was a gift so I'm pretty bummed out

The Reef Bowl turned 100 days old today so what better way to celebrate than by entering a 100 Days of Nanos Contest!! I'll clearly be representing the noobs and am perfectly content having long shot odds at winning any prize. Oh wait, I already won one! Ok, that may be the only one, but I'm fine with that! It will just be nice to have a fish...or not. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet.
SeaFurn’s 100 Days of Nanos Contest Tank
The Plan
This is my first saltwater tank since I was a teenager back in the 80’s and it’s clear that so much has changed since then. As such, I’m a newb again and that’s OK. I’ve joined a great group of people who love love love their reef tanks and are helpful and supportive. So, I invite everyone over these next 100 days (and beyond) to freely advise, comment and help me be successful.
The plan is to keep it simple. As simple as it needs to be an no simpler. So simple, a newb could pull it off. But I also want it to be striking.
The theme of my contest tank is ROCK FLOWER GARDEN.
Inspiration For This Tank
Since I started reading threads on NR I’ve been taken with rock flower anemones and thought they were so colorful and awesome that I wanted a tank of them! @FlowerMama@kimberbee @gena among others have/have had some amazing RFAs (and RFA babies!) and have contributed to the obsession and I hope each of them keep their eye on me with this tank!
I also love the tank below and its simplicity - yes, it’s freshwater, but with the reef sand it got me thinking how I could do something similar in a reef tank.
Here’s a link to the Urban Aquaria page where I found this tank. Unfortunately, nothing more was posted after this.
http://www.urbanaquaria.com/2013/03/23-litre-sand-tank.html
My vision for the contest tank - ROCK with its top covered with green/neon green star polyps and maybe some rainbow clove polyps (if I can find the right green ones), a GARDEN of amazingly colorful ROCK FLOWER anemones on the sand, some anemone shrimp and/or crabs, and a couple of bright colorful (newb-safe) active fish. Simple. Fingers crossed!
Special thanks to @Weetabix7 and @natalia_la_loca for guidance on this so far!
Tank:
Innovative Marine 14 Gallon NUVO Fusion Peninsula Aquarium 20”x11.8”x13"
Lighting:
Current USA Orbit Marine Pro LED
Filtration:
IM stock return pump. (211 GPH)
Intank Floss Holder
Carbon
Planning rubble and cheato in second chamber - I ran it this way for about 6 months but found that flow through the chamber wasn't really fast enough and green slime algae was growing faster than the chaeto was.
Live Rock:
Marco dried rock from a Premium Aquatics 20g office tank - Thanks @ReefNewby82
Live Sand:
CaribSea Special Grade
Circulation:
Jebao SW-2 (132-660 GPH) - never ended up using this. The flow from the return was more than enough for the RFAs and the GSP didn't need any more either.
Heater: Tetra 50 watt
Cobalt Aquatics Neo-Therm 75 Watt
ATO:
Did manual top offs from May through December.
AutoAqua Smart ATO Micro - love it!
Controller:
Inkbird ITC-308 - had to cover the probe with silicon as it had started rusting.
Inhabitants:
Fish:
Ocellaris clown fish pair
Inverts:
Rock Flower Anemones
Porcelain Anemone Crab - started off with a pair but lost one.
Snails
Coral:
GSP Clove Polyps - maybe
FTS 5/10/17 - A couple of hours after getting the tank wet

So I got 10 RFA on 12/1/17 from VIPReef @VIPReef as my birthday gift. My tank has been running and all is well, except that yesterday I found one dead and rotting in my tank, today, another 3 are detached, shrinked and I think dead. I don’t know what to feel anymore. Aside from being expensive and supposedly hardy, in my experience they are not... I don’t want to loose all of them. Please help.
My tank has 2 bullethole clowns, 2 cardinals, 1 tail spot blenny, purple fire fish, another goby, with a cleaner shrimp and sexy shrimp. Most in my tank are softies and LPS.
Temp: 82
Salinity: 1.026
PH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5.0 ppm

I made a post a few days ago in My IM 20g flower flower farm that Something was funky with one of the baby RFA born in the tank.....I realize how rare this would be & how improbable to find in the tank so I'm still not 100% that this is actually what it is.......Anyway....
I think it is a Siamese twin with two heads! I'm about 85-90% sure. I saw a post on another form about an adult green RFA someone bought that would not attach because it had a parasitic twin attached to its foot so a Siamese twin would have to be just as possible. Its soooo small its very hard for me to tell 100% at this point. (if it isn't it's still strange & interesting that they would hold onto each other like that) At first I thought it was just two that were holding onto one another but after very gently trying to get them to separate & watching hem attach & hold on with what looks like the same oddly oval shaped foot I do think this is what I have going on....Even stranger they started out pure white but seem to be developing color at different rates. One has a brown/orange face & the other is whitish. I'm starting this thread to keep track of its development & health to see if it is actually two & if it separates. Its so tiny I'm hoping I don't loose it. I wonder if they will develop different colors & if its male or female or both! I estimate that it is about a week old. The heads are about half the size of one of its siblings from this same batch one is slightly smaller than the other but the foot is about the same size as the others.
Ok interesting I found ANOTHER "twin" & this time there is no question what this one is. It is larger about twice the size of this one with both heads the same color two heads one body. One is head a little smaller than the other one. They are the same color & closer together that is why I did not notice before. What genetic oddness is going on in this tank..? Most of my rfa are sourced from different places at different times & none of the adults were born in this tank & there so I don't think its inbreeding.
Siamese twin(?) #1
Siamese twin #2

Hey all. So I came in to work this morning where I have a Classroom tank and my Rock Flower had moved and was behind a rock like this? I tried turning it over and it did the same thing a few minutes later. Is it dying? What should I do?
Water Params I can't check for another hour when I get a break.
Please Help. TIA
Update: I moved the RFA, thinking it was maybe just not happy where it was and could not reattach itself because of current. Turned off all pumps for 20 minutes and moved it to another area and it is still not looking happy and it detached itself again. Any other ideas?